Why is the Korean Economy Seeing A Surge in Job Creation?
It looks like firing the person in charge of gathering economic statistics in South Korea has worked for the Moon administration:
Employment growth hit a five-and-a-half-year high last month, with the most notable turnaround in manufacturing jobs.
Optimism is tempered however as the momentum could stall with the Wuhan coronavirus still threatening the economy.
In January, 568,000 new jobs were added compared to the same month the previous year. That is the most since 670,000 new jobs were added in August 2014.
January was the second consecutive month in which more than 500,000 jobs were created.
The big news was in manufacturing, where jobs were added for the first time in almost two years. Totals have been dropping since 2018. In January, 8,000 manufacturing jobs were added.
Most of the jobs created since last year have been in health and social welfare and added with the help of government spending.
Last month, 189,000 health and welfare jobs were added, the most of any category. A total of 92,000 transportation and storage jobs were added, followed by lodging and restaurant positions, at 86,000.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but notice that the major source of jobs is not organic job creation, but instead the government handing out jobs. Even more interesting is that the majority of the government jobs are going to the elderly who tend to vote more than younger people. Does anyone think that this is just a coincidence that is happening right before April’s parliamentary elections?
I said it on the open thread, but again living here in Korea and talking to Koreans (especially those that own a business) the economy sucks, business is way down, people are barely getting by. Walk down any street and daily more closed business and more for rent signs. This has all happened since commie moon has taken charge. Of course now he has the easy excuse of the virus to hide his incompetence and mismanagement.